


Supernova

by Alley_Walk (AlleyWalk_writes)



Series: Corrupted [1]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Animal Ghost Danny Fenton, Bullying, Danny has issues, F/M, Gen, M/M, Temporary Character Death, Trans Danny Fenton
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:40:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28217112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlleyWalk_writes/pseuds/Alley_Walk
Summary: Danny thought his life was alright. He got good grades, played on the football team, and had a group of insufferable friends. He even had three parents. He’d offer to donate one to charity, if he wasn’t busy hogging them all to himself. Sorry, Danielle who?OR: Vlad, Maddie, and Jack are in a poly relationship, Vlad is Mayor with Danielle as Danny’s ghost-powered little sister, and life is a lot more complicated as a result.
Relationships: Danny Fenton & Tucker Foley, Jack Fenton/Maddie Fenton/Vlad Masters
Series: Corrupted [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2067078
Comments: 1
Kudos: 18





	Supernova

Danny walked down the hallways of Casper High, his letterman jacket a comfortable yet constricting weight around his shoulders. The jacket hung loosely around his frame, as his shoulders, while broad, weren't nearly up to snuff compared to the other football players. The loose jacket was Dash's reminder. And punishment. 

As he turned the corner he heard the distinctive sound of Dash’s mocking laughter and the familiar bang of a teenage body being shoved up painfully against the lockers.  _ Just walk away, Fenton. _ Danny told himself.  _ Be smart for once. _ And yet he found himself making his way towards the disturbance, his footsteps quickening as someone cried out in pain.

Danny pushed through the crowd of onlookers and saw Dash and Kwan cornering a weedy boy with green eyes, deep brown skin, and a red beret on his head. The beginnings of a black eye swelled on his face, and his glasses were cracked and horribly askew. Tucker, Danny thought his name was. Not one of Dash's usual targets.

"You'd better keep up your end of the deal, Foley! Or  _ else _ ." Dash said.

“Dash…” Danny said with a frown.

Dash looked back at Danny and smirked, hand still fisted into Tucker’s collar. “What? You want a turn, Danny?” His face morphed into a scowl. “Don’t tell me you’re still taking it easy on these losers.”

Danny wanted to say so many things to that. Instead, he said, “Dash, we have football practice in ten.”

Dash’s eyes narrowed, his fists tightening around Tucker’s collar, making the boy cough. Danny glared as he reached up and put pressure on Dash’s thumb. Dash cursed, letting go to shake out his hand. His blue eyes bored holes into Danny, and Danny swallowed, tension strung along his shoulders. “C’mon, man.” Kwan suddenly urged.

Dash scoffed, and just like that the tension was broken. “Whatever. See you at practice,  _ Danny _ .” His words had bite to them, and Danny swallowed nervously. Dash turned and left, Kwan nodding to Danny with a small, encouraging smile before doing the same.

Danny sighed, looking over at his unwanted rescuee. “Wait here.” The crowd had quickly dispersed after there was nothing left to gawk at, so Danny had no trouble making it to his locker, dialing the combination by heart and quickly grabbing a half frozen ice pack from his lunchbox. 

“Here,” he said, handing it to Tucker. The other boy eyed it suspiciously as one might a suspect punch bowl at a frat party.

Finally he took it and nearly sighed with relief. “Thanks, man.” He eyed Danny curiously. “What was that about taking it easy on, uh, losers?”

Danny winced at the wording, before rolling his eyes. “Dash just doesn’t understand that decent people don’t beat people up.” Danny rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. “Especially me, ever since I joined the football team. I get the sense that it’s required, maybe to feed their big egos.” Danny shrugged half-heartedly. "Not that I'm much different."

Tucker laughed, which surprised him. His green eyes were surprisingly warm as he said, “I have a hard time believing that." He smiled. "I’m Tucker Foley.”

Danny laughed. “I know. You’re sort of infamous for hacking into Vla- _ my dad’s _ work computer.”

Tucker was horrified. “I got flagged by the  _ Mayor _ ?”

Danny smiled. “Don’t worry. I think he thought it was pretty funny.”

Tucker sagged against the lockers, lifting the ice pack from his face for a moment to blink water from his eye before replacing it, glasses in his off hand. “So, you seem like a pretty cool dude. Why are you hanging out with them? I mean you’re the  _ Mayor’s _ son, I’m pretty sure you could have any kind of friends you wanted if you just asked.”

Danny shrugged, scratching at his cheek. “That’s sort of the problem.” 

Tucker frowned at him. “What, that you had too many friends?”

“No.” Danny said with a scowl, something heavy and insidious settling in his chest. “Back then, people weren’t really my friend for me, they were just there for what _my_ _father_ could do for them.” He felt the weight of invisible eyes, the taste of harsh words on his lips as he remembered Vlad’s sad eyes, the disappointment in them. He looked down, rubbing the back of his neck. “It wasn’t all bad. At least I had friends. Still, the A-listers were–are… easier in a lot of ways. At least I know what they want with me, y’know? Spoiled rich kids. Not much they’ll be asking me for in the way of favors.”

Tucker nodded with a smile. “I think I get that. You do what you gotta do, you know? And I mean, from what I’ve heard, you’re practically the epitome of a nerd’s Knight in Shining Armor.” 

Danny lifted an eyebrow. “Does that make you the princess, or the dragon?”

Tucker crossed his arms with a sniff. “Obviously I’m the fairy godmother. The evil one, of course.”

Danny gave him a mock-serious look. “Of course.” After a beat they both broke down laughing.

“Oh, wait. Before you go.” Tucker took out a sharpie and leaned over to write his number on Danny’s arm. At Danny’s dumbfounded look, he blushed and waved his arms in front him, spluttering, “As friends!”

Danny blushed, too. “Right, sorry…” He cleared his throat. “I, uh… yeah. See ya.” He said with a sort of awkward half wave. 

Hitching his backpack and football kit over his shoulders, he hightailed it towards the back of the school, fishing his phone out of his pocket. God, he was an awkward mess. Good thing Dash wasn’t there to see  _ that _ . With a sigh he thumbed the code to his lock screen, his eyes landing on an unread text message at the bottom of the screen. 

It could be nothing, and he really did have football practice. Football practice that Dash would nag him for days for skipping out on. But…  _ But _ . Danny hated football practice, hated the cheerleaders and wanna-be cheerleaders that fawned over any person that wore a letterman jacket, hated how the other players mocked him for needing to bench twice as much weights just to keep up with the cis gendered football players. 

Danny's feet stilled, stalled around the side of the school. He clicked on the message.

From: Dad

_ danno! just a reminder that the ecto-filtrator needs changing! i know you have football and the APE, (which is still a great name for our anti-ecto group. im not sure why mads and the v-man don't like it. :c) but a little more responsibility wouldn't hurt. _

Danny frowned. The text was from this morning. A bad feeling in the pit of his stomach, Danny hurried home.

* * *

The Ecto-Filtrator alarm wailed its warning throughout the room, gone unheeded too long, too late. Danny’s heartbeat roared in his ears. An explosion ripped through everything, devouring both house and boy, as violent and beautiful as a supernova. 

* * *

Danny stumbled out of the burning wreckage that had been his home. No one had been home, had they? He didn't think so. Danny shook himself. His whole body hurt, and he could see around himself from all angles. He startled when he saw a monstrous animal ghost reflected in the glass of a nearby house. The animal ghost startled too.

That’s… That’s not… 

He took a deep breath to calm himself. He needed to find help. Needed to search the wreckage. He took a step forward to do so and saw the animal ghost’s reflection do the same. He saw it perfectly, as if he were looking right at it, even though he had been facing straight forward. He was drawn towards the reflection again, and this time, he really looked.

They had a long serpentine neck, with long pointed ears and a flat skull with a pointed, slightly upturned snout, not unlike that of a fox’s. The animal ghost had no eyes on their face, which creeped Danny out to the third degree. They had feathered wings folded loosely against their back, and a thick tail not unlike a serpent’s that mirrored their serpentine body that was covered head to tail tip in fur. Despite their seemingly eyeless state, they did have eyes; they resembled the markings on a certain butterfly Danny had seen once in a documentary. The markings on this butterfly gave the illusion of eyes to scare away predators, but where these illusions were only illusions, the eyes on this creature blinked and glowed a brilliant green. The ‘eyes’ accoutered the top and bottom of each wing, as well as both shoulders and hinds of the animal ghost. Several ‘eyes’ dotted the length of their tail, as well as ones on their shoulders and haunches. The animal ghost’s fur was a dark grey, with a black underbelly and white marbling like that of a koi fish that went from their hindquarters down the length of their tail. Wisps of green smoke drifted from their form, and on their side were three open slashes like gills, and for the first time Danny noted the ache there, and the unfamiliar feeling of extra appendages.

Danny turned his neck. 

An eyeless stare met his gaze. Danny felt like vomiting, and he shook his head as if in denial.

This. This wasn’t  _ right _ . Sure, Vlad had gained ghost powers from a portal accident, and Danielle was a halfa too due to being his daughter, but, but he… 

Startling at the sound of emergency services nearby, Danny took off at a run. He didn’t stop. Not when four legs turned into two. Not until he collapsed with exhaustion.

He would figure it out. Later. Right now, he needed rest.


End file.
